Beginning with plan years that end in 2020 California employers maintaining flexible spending accounts, or “FSAs,” will be required by a new amendment to the state’s Labor Code, enacted August 30, 2019, to notify the employee participants of any “deadline to withdraw funds before the end of the plan year.” FSAs are expense reimbursement plans
Employee Health & Welfare Plans
North Carolina Court Awards $41 Thousand-Plus Penalty for Failure to Produce Documents Requested by Plan Participants
Section 104(b)(4) of ERISA provides that a plan administrator must respond to a written request for certain documents (including the plan documents and summary plan description) by a participant or beneficiary by providing the requested documents. Section 502(c)(1) of ERISA and Regulation § 2575.502(c)-1 provide that a plan administrator who fails to do so within…
Don’t Overlook Your Employee Benefit Plans as You Evaluate the Effect of the Final Overtime Rule
Before employers implement their proposed workforce changes resulting from the finalization of the new overtime rule, released September 24, 2019, see our article for more information, employers should consider what impact those proposed workforce changes may have on their employee benefit plans.
Employee benefit plans with criteria for eligibility, contribution, etc. based on the classification…
COBRA Notice Litigation Resulting in Big Dollar Claims
Can you imagine something as simple as a COBRA Notice missing a few technical requirements resulting in an employer needing to pay a 6 or 7-digit damages award? That is happening in Florida. Employers in and out of Florida should pay attention to this news, as what doesn’t start in California often starts in Florida.…
Is Your Employer Worksite Medical Clinic a Group Health Plan?
Worksite medical clinics, some offering round-the-clock access to medical providers via telemedicine, seem to be growing in popularity. Promoters tout cost savings resulting from what would otherwise be lost productivity (employees whiling away afternoons waiting to see their private doctors or having to drive long distances to have blood drawn for routine laboratory work)…
IRS CORRECTION PROGRAM, NOW MORE EFFICIENT
In 2008, the IRS established a voluntary correction program aimed at plan sponsors and administrators to encourage resolution of plan document or operational failures as soon as they are discovered. The Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System, or “EPCRS” as it is most often called, stresses the importance of established administrative practices and procedures to avoid…
As The ACA Landscape Shifts Again, What’s an Employer to Do?
By Kellie M. Thomas on
As employers and their third-party administrators begin to wrap-up their Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) reporting for the 2018 tax year, we’ve started to receive questions about what comes next. As we discussed here, with the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Act”), the ACA’s “individual mandate”…
Wellness Programs Continue to Face Compliance Challenges
By Joseph J. Lazzarotti on
The rules for employer-sponsored wellness programs continue to be a moving target; most recently, regulations issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) intending to address issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (“GINA”). Many employers are already well aware of the wellness regulations under the Affordable Care…
Association Health Plans—Are They Really an Option to Consider?
As discussed during our recent webinar, the finalized DOL regulations for qualifying “association health plans” will likely create new opportunities for sole proprietors and other primarily small businesses and other trade groups to band together in a coordinated manner to purchase more affordable health insurance as a “single employer” in 2019 and beyond. That…
IRS Reverses the $50 HSA Reduction for 2018
We recently informed you that the IRS reduced the 2018 health savings account (“HSA”) contribution limit for individuals with family coverage to $6,850.00 despite having previously announced that such limit was $6,900. Because of compelling comments from stakeholders, the IRS reversed this decision in Revenue Procedure 2018-27 and the contribution limit for individuals with family…